Wednesday, 7 March 2012

THE BARBIE BEAUTY MYTH

Photo Source: Google Images

I worked on a paper titled The Portrayal of Women in Magazine Advertisements and it's been on my mind to share a few things about it here so here goes. Women (and men) come in an endless array of shapes and sizes,
but one would never know it from looking at adverts. “Physically attractive”
and “sexually desirable” is almost synonymous with “flawless” and “thin.” Men
are usually portrayed with perfect six packs abs while women are shown as slender
which is a stark contrast to the rounder curves of most women’s bodies. The current ‘beauty ideal’ smiles at
us from the pages of Vogue or Glamour
magazine. She is a seventeen-year old professional model, weighing just 120
pounds on a slim 5‘10” frame. Her teeth is pearly white, she has no wrinkles,
blemishes or even pores. This flawlessness is, in fact, an illusion created by
makeup artists, photographers and photo retouchers (Hello Photoshop).

Most of the images we see in the media have been nipped
and tucked, trimmed and filled out, flattened and rounded, down to the last detail.
In the end, we see a reflection of someone not even the model can claim as her
own. Botox, fake tan, color contact lenses, hair extensions, boob jobs, the
list is endless. The
problem is, that standard is unattainable, even for those held up as examples. Each
image is meticulously worked over: teeth and eyeballs are bleached white;
blemishes, wrinkles, and stray hairs are airbrushed away. In some cases, a
picture is actually a combination of body parts of several different models; a
mouth from this one, arms from that one, and legs from a third. Since the media molds
expectations, opinions, and attitudes; the audience of these adverts may accept
the way women are depicted as reality.

http://www.frankwbaker.com/isbmag.htm

It is one thing to live up to a certain standard and quite
another to try to live up to somebody else’s fantasy.
The overwhelming presence of media images of painfully thin and flawless women
means that real women’s bodies have become invisible in the mass media. The
real tragedy is that many women internalize these stereotypes, and judge
themselves by the beauty industry’s standards that are too unrealistic in its
flawlessness. As an adaptation to the physical demands of childbearing,
women’s bodies typically have a fat content of around 25 percent, as opposed to
15 percent in men. Fattening, which in some African cultures is perceived to bring out the
best in the African woman is almost a taboo. In the Eastern part of Nigeria,
some tribes send bride-to-be’s to the “fattening room” before the wedding to
make sure the bride looks well fed and healthy for her wedding. The world has
however shrunk cultural borders with the rapid growth in social media where
brands are sold worldwide. Global advertising campaigns that display ‘Beauty
Myth’ type models are produced and the western ideal of beauty held up as evidence
of beauty is the thin, long legged, long neck, long finger-nails, long free
flowing hair (Brazilian anyone?)

It is disturbing that media images of
female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women (less than 5%) consequently; many women are dissatisfied with their seemingly imperfect
selves when they compare their reality with the airbrushed perfection.It is
really sad that are there sensitive/impressionable young girls with self esteem
issues that are magnified significantly by the fake perfection that is shoved
down our throats via airbrushed ads, magazines, catalogs, TV shows, movies,
billboards, etc. The adverse consequences from feelings of insecurity and body
dissatisfaction include eating disorders, low self esteem, unnecessary,
expensive, and painful plastic surgery, depression and all can lead to death.

Thankfully, there have been some moves to buck this trend.
There is a Dove Campaign for Real Beauty launched by Dove which was established
to inspire and educate females about a wider definition of beauty. The Campaign Fund continues to create
thought-provoking adverts and
confidence-building programs that embrace all definitions of beauty. Tyra
Banks’ also launched campaign called “So What?” to promote positive body
images for women and eradicate low self-esteem. This was in response to a
magazine article that called her “fat”. Thankfully, curvier/fuller figured
celebrities and models like Tyra Banks,
Eva Mendes, Octavia Spencer, Amber Rose, Heidi Klum, and Kim Kardashian, are being acknowledged
for their beauty. Even Nigerian magazines such as Glam and Essence and Genevieve
now feature various sizes of women.

You can work out to keep fit and maintain a good Body Mass
Index (BMI) but please do not obsess. We may not have control over what and how
the media decides to represent us, but we certainly have the power to change
how we act. Until adverts depict women in more realistic ways, women will
persistently measure themselves against non-existent and unattainable standards
of beauty. And until we embrace reality, women will continue to seek commercial
remedies for imaginary flaws. It is up to the women in particular and society
at large, to think more critically when they look at that Victoria's Secret spread and less critically when they look in the
mirror.

I would totally *cough* do prefer the before in the above picture than the after (i had to save the best for last hehe. You're welcome ladies). You can view some of the pictures here,here, here and here. Some of the changes i find unnecessary. Check out this Dove advert too.

There are no real people in magazines anymore. Even the people retouched and and airbrushed are most times far from what they look like in real life. The sad thing is that even knowing this, people still want to be like the magazine people.

Lovely Post :) I dunno about this air brush thing, everything starts from within. Once you deal with what is inside of you, you would care less what society standard of beauty is and just focus on a better you which includes health. As for the magazines, no one looks like that and its just to sell the products aka marketing strategy.

First of all, I love your new template.These pictures say a lot.As for me, I believe its not good to be too fat or too thin. Being healthy is what counts.Also, know your body and your genes, love it and carry yourself well. Then a high self-esteem will follow

There are numerous youtube videos that show the transformation from a seemingly normal-looking girl to a photoshopped wonder. It's a bit sickening really, but like Okeoghene said, in spite of this knowledge, many women (me included sometimes) still strive for those standards.

My own is - how is a poreless looking face appealing?!!?! How does the girl's face stay so perfect if she has no pores to let air in?! Nawa o

If i were seeing you right now,would've given you a very huge hug.This post makes so much sense and the ladies,especially,should take it serious.Being a professional graphics designer,i know the magic Photoshop is capable of so i'm always skeptical about things i see.

I saw the Dove advert sometime back. It was shocking to see how many retouches were done on a once-pale skin to make it look flawless like a life-size doll. My mouth was agape.

I guess with the influence of magazines and fashion shows, some ladies would starve themselves to the point of anorexia all in the name of looking great and fab like the models they see. It's a sad thing really. Me sef, I'm working on getting those curves in the right places and looking absolutely bootylicious. *winks*. Stick-thin is just not IT!!!

See, me i don't mind touched up pictures oo. I see enough real life acne-fat-eczema around me that I don't mind the escapism of looking at 'perfect people'. I probably feel some sympathy for the celebrities cause they are the ones who have to live up to the image which has portrayed of them.

That touched up picture does Tyrese no favours (that's Tyrese right?). His head now looks disproportionately bigger than his trunk lolss.

What I have against the 'barbies' in magazines is the illusion that being slim to the point of anorexia is great fashion. I'm still trying to regain the curves on my body that went straight after falling sick and losing weight. I need them curves back ooo...*wailing*

As far as I am concerned we should be healthy and fit to do our daily chores without getting tired. So we should eat moderately, exercise moderately,sleep enough to maintain a fit body and mind. How we look is immaterial. But youngsters have their heroes and they try to imitate them.Therein lies the problem.

I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the subject accompanied by interesting photos.

"no wonder our perception of beauty is distorted"If you was to ask an 8year old child what beauty is, you will realise the poison the media has implanted in them.we do need to embrace natural beauty more.but it is easier said than done, embracing our natural beauty when we are always bombarded with all this fake ideologies of what amount to beauty. But hopefully we all try and not let it get to us

btw you just inspired a post for me, i will reference back to you xxxx

Loving the new blog background.Now in terms of airbrushing and stuff I think it is something that will really injure some people because they would wanna look like what they see in the magazines regardless of the fact that it is all computer skills. Beauty comes from within so does perfection- once that is in place then a "I don't care what you think but I am beautiful in every single way" attitude definitely takes its rightful place. May God help us. oh and I thought they (Kim K and others) started a campaign against airbrush at somepoint??

This is a very very serious issue. And I can't lie that these things to get to me sometimes but yeah it's all about self esteem issues. If you are fat trouble, if you are thin wahala, no breast wahala, I do breast implant now wahala, no ass trouble, I do implant still trouble from the same society making all these standards. Silly people would still call you to ask you if your nose is real or fake, like please!! How do u expect me to be skinny and still have boobs and ass to go with it, abeg park well jorThe worst thing to do in life is doing something to conform to the standards of the society. We need to all learn to live by our own rules. The society is confused!!

Oh and your new design is sooo chilled, I guess the tomato couldn't live too long.

so love this post! *would read it again!* Can you believe a 9yr old gal refused to be eating her lunch at school, when her mother asked why? she said, it's becox she doesn't want to be fat! the mother had to cry out o!

The media is to be blamed. Being healthy is the key word as @ilola said: eat and exercise.

the only important thing as far as I am concerned is being confident in who you are, accepting yourself and loving yourself. In as much as we all need to be healthy, it doesn't necessary mean we have to kill ourselves.

Originality is fast fading from our world today. Truth is, everyone is almost guilty of it these days, be it in our mannerisms, appearance, speech etc. Of course, some do it to the extreme however. I hope we all stop living a lie someday.

It's crazy how we all know there's alot of photoshoping and retouching done to pictures on billboards and in magazines but we still let those images weigh us down.It takes the grace of God to be content in this deceptive, profit minded world.

I totally love this post...you did well! Nowadays there are so make 'fake' things in the world, it's hard to detect. The world is turning to a place where it's hard to fit in because of all the standards been set for beauty. Beauty comes in all range, shapes and sizes. One just has to have enough confidence to be able to brush off all the negative things been seen and said.

@toin ...im glad im not the only one who sees the media's projection as a pack of lies..LOl..as in...u need to see the way ppl, including teenagers ogle over these photoshopped pics and magazines ehn and u'll be like WTH!!i would like you to get your hands on Lisa bevere's kiss the girl and made them cry or Leslie Ludy's Set apart feminity or Authentic beauty. you will love it cos it explains a woman's past confession about her belief in the media and all that stuff. i guess since they've been thru lies that made them see how imperfect they were...and i guess hollywood is not even better..all these brad pitt, jenny aniston, angelina jolie, tom cruise, chris evans etc are not as **hot** and young as we think they are. these ppl re growing old for goodness sake like harrison ford..lol. and so the best thing is believing in yourself and believing what God says about you.nice upload!

Physically attractive” and “sexually desirable” is almost synonymous with “flawless” and “thin.unfortunately i no dey that category but my bible tells me i am attractive LOL its good to read your work babe! long time! how are you?

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I Am So mUch MoRe

I'm a bubbly chatterbox, mostly sugar with a dash of spice. Life has dealt me some mean curves but i'm strutting those curves around like Kim K. I'm all about living, laughing, loving and inspiring. I love books, music, sleep erm lets just go with eclectic

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